An incorrigible Cognitive Dissident

REVEALED: HOW TESCO’S DIRTY TRICKS CON THE SHOPPER INTO PAYING MORE

Just before Christmas, I was in Tesco Axminster buying beer, the way you do. There was a pack of twelve Budweiser, and above it was a pack of 20. The bottle sizes were identical. Next to the 20-pack was a note announcing ‘Best Seller’, so my immediate assumption was, “That’ll be better value, then”. But it wasn’t. In fact, the price for 2 x 12 was less than the price of 20.

Silly old Tesco, I thought, placing two twelve packs in my trolley. At the checkout, a middle-ranking manager person was watching a newish young till-girl’s performance. So I said to the managerial bod, you’ve got your pricing wrong on the Budweiser, and she said oh, how’s that then? When I told her how, she looked distinctly shifty. She would, she promised, talk to the store manager about it.

I wasn’t satisfied, but then Christmas intervened – and so it was yesterday before I was in another Tesco store, this time in Seaton. I decided to do a little check on a few items where the small size and big size juxtaposition was prominent.

Tesco are clearly making quite a few mistakes like the beer one. And spookily, the false impression given is always in their favour.

Look to your left and you’ll see large and small Ariel Actilift gel packs. I’ve ringed and arrowed the large size…..next to which are (again) the weasel words ‘Best Seller’.

Legally, this allows Tesco to get away with the scam, because they don’t say ‘best price’, merely that it sells better than any other pack size. It’s a bestseller because (a) the shopper’s assumption is always that bigger packs are better value; and (b) they’ve put a sign next to it showing that it is an, um, bestseller.

The top pack’s ticket, you will see, says £8.17. The bottom pack’s says £4.99. Ergo, 2 x £4.99 = £9.98. Much more than the cost of one big one, right? So I’ll buy the big one.

Wrong.

Buying two small packs was, per litre, 21p cheaper. (But that’s in the half-point flyshit text below the price).

Sue me if you like Tesco, but this is deliberately misleading: it’s designed to increase the margin gained by the store – and up the volume bought as well. Heads they win, tails we lose.

This little trick was apparent on several items around the store, in most sectors. It needs to be stopped, but equally we need to stop and think whether the increasing power of Tesco in almost every sector of retail really is a good thing.

I blogged about this second store before it was built. It is situated on a flood-plain (against building regs) near to nesting areas for rare marine avian species. Part of the land Tesco acquired had an old restriction on it against selling alcohol. Tesco sells alcohol. After the deal went through, a senior councillor resigned. When I contacted her, she refused to comment about why. Sources close to the lady, however, told me she suspected dirty work.

The roads leading to the site are both small two-track B roads. The village at one end is full of listed houses, but now has delivery lorries chundering up and down all day. To maximise use of the site, Tesco knocked down the only fitness and leisure centre in the town. So losing fat has been replaced by selling fat…..and being dishonest about what it costs.

Tesco know their acquisition was deeply unpopular with the locals, but the locals were ignored. The company’s spin machine is now working overtime, selling bags monogrammed with the town name, putting up a local notice-board in the main entrance, and all the rest of the vomit-inducing bollocks that comes with Big Companies these days.

Two things we need here – aside from somebody at whatever the DTI is called this week telling Tesco to desist from its eccentric pricing policy – are (1) A public enquiry into why this Tesco was built, but the earlier Sainsbury suggestion wasn’t. And (2) a Minister of Culture prepared to give some serious thought to community destruction by these vandals.

Westbromwich. Newsquare broke my shopping trolley all because the lady on checkout took for mints. So when packed all my. Shopping. The alarm goes of. And. He. Rechecks all my shopping. Unpacking all my shopping. What a embrassment. Which put me. A hour late fory bus. When put my shopping back how it was. He said I’ll pay for a taxi. I said. No. You broke my trolley. No respect of people’s items. The checkout. Should Of rectifi. Her mistake. A letter of apoligey and A. New trolley. Mistake. Checkout lady needs to resolve it. Friday 5 th feb. New. Square. This. Will. Put people of and will loose customers this. Way. Disgusted. In this matter I emailed ain’t no response. Yet

Although I agree that not just Tesco but many supermarkets use tricks to get more money out of shoppers, I do just want to point out that the “best seller” tickets are pointing out which item sells the best not which item is the best value, but if you look carefully at each shelf label it usually tells you how much per lb, litre ect you are paying so you can work out which I best value

I just came home with a bargain from the yellow sticker section in the meat aisle. Two pack of chops with the yellow sticker signifying a reduced item and still with 5 days to go before the use by date!
EXCEPT. The price on the yellow sticker is exactly the same as the normal price hidden underneath, so they weren’t reduced at all. I worked out the price based on the weight and the £6-99/Kg. No reduction at all, other than my wallet contents.
Could this be a little con aimed at tricking people into buying stuff they wouldn’t have bought if it wasn’t reduced?
I wouldn’t put anything past the Tesco pricing people.
Every little bit helps and Tesco are struggling with their profits these days.
They’ll now struggle to make any more money from me after pulling this stunt!

Just got ripped off by Tesco online. I bought some chunky kit bars online £10 worth. They substituted them for Toffee crisps £10 worth. On delivery the substitution was not pointed out to me, only when I went to unpack them. I phoned TESCO who told me hand them back to the driver. I said the driver had long gone. They them told me to return the items to a store. I said that was impossible. They then told me to return them to the driver on my next order, which is likely to be 2 months away. So in effect they have made me buy something I don’t want. I’ll be shopping elsewhere in the future, It’s their error not mine.

We no longer Buy at Tesco Most of the Food tastes like crap ( Tesco Brand ) its waaay more costly than other stores.

We go to shops further away costing more petrol, but in total savings it more than makes up for the extra milage.

Unsealed
Out of date
Not stored Properly
Arrogant staff
Damaged
Defrosted
Costs too much
Often makes us ill ( Used to )
Even had Food tested for foriegn Substance no kidding.

Example Price second store not named

Brand name mini Shreded Wheat 500g

Tesco £2.49
Competitor £1.00

I mean One product already saved 1.49 O.o wth

Unfortuantely here in Barnsley.. Yes I’m naming and shaming.. Local muppets still shop here just because its nearer they dont even realise you save money going elsewhere and it often lasts longer tastes better.

Tesco extra Wombwell.

Defrosted – Frozen – Defrosted- Frozen again Rinse repeat. Wombwell extra store – havent used that for 1.5 years since I saw that in the corner Upright doors to Freezers left open Often the automatic Doors will trap you.

Just because it says best seller doesn’t make it the best value. It wouldn’t occur to me that it was. I don’t think it’s a con at all. All supermarkets have to indicate the price per kilo/gram/ml/litre etc and have had to do so for a long time. It makes comparing which the the best value a piece of cake. Some people have nothing better to do than look for reasons to moan about companies.

we used to shop at Tesco West Bromwich and once i had to sort the lot out at home due to getting some items for my mother ,i found there to be 1 extra pack of butter on the reciept than what we had bought ,so the week after i checked it all and again there was an extra item on the reciept,so the 4th time i refused to pay and went for the manager ,once i got him back to the checkout and the trolley was taken to a counter and checked .again there was 3 of one item charged instead of 2 they apologised and refunded the difference so that was the last time we shopped there

A few days ago I bought Tesco creamy cheese in a plastic tub the size of the tub indicated to me that it was worth the money the were asking until a few days into using the cheese, I noticed that the bottom of the of the tub had be raised to replace almost a third of the cheese I thought I was buying, this is totally misleading and coning the customer .

prob bit late with this reply. Yes Tesco pull some tricks, but tell me a business that doesnt. They are there to make money afterall they are not a charity.
If you can read then if you are conned then it is your own fault. Their labels clearly state the price per litre etc so you can compare. If the higher price item is the best seller then clearly there are lots of stupid people.

I work for Tesco, only as a mere customer assistant. But i have to say in terms of modern employers they are actually one of the better ones. They pay well. offer many benefits, how many companies provide free christmas diinners, childrens parrties and fun activities at christmas?

I dont see how a very successful company can be blamed for wanting to be successful.

I’ve just returned to Australia after a trip to the UK and Europe and would dearly love to see Tesco here in place of the Coles,Woolworths duopoly.If you want to pay twice the price for half the choice in pokey little grubby stores then Oz is the choice I say bring on the Tesco juggernaut .Food should not be so expensive in a country that produces so much of it.

the stockport store advertise 24 stella for £15..but they only keep them in the back you have to ask staff for them..an depending who ..sometimes you get them othere times not ..thay dont even have a slot for them in store its just a con to get you in store

Is this not just down to a subjective interpretation. To me it just means one sells more, not that one is cheaper. Like you said, if it said best price then yes but it doesn’t. Tesco’s problems go much deeper than this misinterpretation. Tax evasion through complex taxation structures for one. If you want to learn something about Tesco’s shopper psychology look at the bargains and how they increase the price before they do a 3 for 2 for example or how Pepsi was £1 a bottle or 3 bottles for £3.

Poor little Saxmundham. It beggars belief that Tesco need TWO stores so close together. Parking their tanks on Waitrose’s lawn sounds, at the very least, childish, but many much ruder words come to mind…

The little town of Saxmundham had a not-very sucessful supermarket that was acquired by Waitrose and became very sucessful. So Tesco, clearly sensitive to local needs, are building a supermarket directly across the road from it – and another one four miles away!

As a former small retailer, I hate Tesco with a passion. Not just Tesco, but all massive corporations that are reaching ever greater economies of scale and just steamrollering over every business sector. The small guys don’t stand a chance anymore. The big supermarkets are selling products at prices that the small independents are paying trade. It’s impossible. If Tesco ever planned a string of stores in Spain, it would be time for all small retailers to just pack up and go home.
Soon there’ll only be about 6 retailers in the UK who sell us everything. These companies grow ever more powerful and almost seem to be able to do WTF they want. Where is all the work going to come from when there’s no high street left. No diversity, Just a few massive retailers who sell everything. I can see Tesco’s construction and Tesco power before long.
I for one am not prepared to spend my money with these monsters. Support the small guy and pay cash. We just have to do what we can in our own small way to stick it to these f**kers.

So how did Tesco become so huge? Who own Tesco?
Money Talks and it is telling you ‘every little helps’ them get richer ie 2p here 5p there All Adds up! I confess to being a frugal shopper I can’t help it I live alone and do not need LARGE family packs of anything. My pet hate is the local shops being taken over by ASIAN mini marts. They seem grubby and smelly and the vegs are usually sad/ rotten and ew. They sell EVERYTHING and cram it all in. three shops in a row ( for competition purposes you understand) all selling the same old cra p . cheap booze make these places a mecca for the anti social ALCOHOLICS and rowdy drunken teenagers. This would not have been tolerated years ago in this town. but hey thats.. Progress…
So it is a choice of two evils… supermarket or mini market ew! I do prefer Aldi and Lidl…John have a bud on me! I am off to make a buckfast jus….

Hear hear! the other great con of the century. Private business- tax free status-run by unpaid volunteers, but over paid ‘managers’! Oh the stories I could tell! NHS is being targeted by these businesses err sorry ‘Charities’ to get a foot hold to get access to billions of pounds on contracts and access to a vunerable public vis a vis ‘donations’. Take a look at cancer sites they all offer ‘help and support’ very heavily branded and HUGE PLEASE Donate widgets.

In fact, Waitrose’s trick is to rate the per unit cost in different, impossible to compare, measures. So they’ll cost one pack on a ‘per ml’ basis in the shelf tag, the comparable pack in (say) ‘per gram.’ Shabby trick.

Happy New Year Duncan.
I live a short waddle from a 24 hour Tesco Extra – one with which Wardy is familiar. Leaving aside shoppers for whom English is not their first language (at certain times and on certain days, it can be the majority due to the store’s location), I think a fair number of the others would not see the weasel. It is not patronising to say they are taken in. They are very reasonably trusting the loyalty-eliciting retailer to steer them towards the best deal. In this day and age of sophisticated data-driven CRM at which Tesco excels, resorting to weasels is the territory of rats. They don’t need to do it and from a brand point of view, they shouldn’t.

I would, but when I explained to him that I couldnt possibly visit his shop between 10 and 4.30, and wouldnt be visiting before 11 on a saturday, he thought I was mad!
His great grandad had started those hours and he’d never had any problems……

*Nerd Warning
My local games workshop opens 12-8, closed monday and tuesday.
If my local butcher and greengrocer did, I could shop there.

The mini mart opens something like 9am till 11pm…..
Not that they sell anythng worth buying.

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.Etc.

I know it’s more of the same but Tescos droylsden near manchester tonight has lean minced steak 500g packet £3.30 or two for £6, special offer
The 800g pack sells for £4.50, which works out at £5.625 a kilo against the £6 a kilo special offer.
Best buy though is obviously the 250g pack which the shelf said was £1.70, but the actual pack had a price of £1.77 on it – bargain, eh? (is that illegal”)

The pair of ‘jugs’ — breasts, white containers containing liquid that in this example of detergents are not only ‘purifying’ but simultaneously ‘toxic’. Melanie Klein’s theory of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ breast as the origin of envy. The breast, to the infant, though a source of nurture and thus ‘good’, also becomes as awareness dawns and proceeds, ‘bad’, because it can be withdrawn and deprived, because mother is an individual who cannot always be there.

One pair above the other. Breast pairs instinctively gratifying, tempting. All containers of liquid, for example beer, can signify these primitive rooted longings.

The advertisers at Tesco (and many others) have exploited this not only by forcing the calculating and less primitive stage of the mind to get involved with the decision (the part that does math and is associated in Freudian theory with control of rage and shame through sphincter control and thus containment in general — very difficult accomplishment for the infant — see your next series of comments on your next post re. the fascinating association one commenter made between ‘racism’ and ‘toilet’ habits), they’ve even labeled one of the desirable breasts as a ‘best seller’ — invoking infantile fears of mother ‘selling out’ or abandonment or wet-nursing herself. It’s devilishly ingenious, and why this post of yours has so many more comments than usual — because, not only does everyone go shopping for food — they all were once infants who had to deal with the primitive agonizing frustrations of breasts simultaneously dangling temptingly with their implied deprivation either because mother is away or simply through weening over the years.

This is why money is ‘the root of all evil’ — because money is ‘produce’ originally — it is in the most basic sense what comes out one’s arse — the original product. And this original ‘produce’ is, through toilet training and socialization what people are made to feel ashamed of because though it quite a good thing, to take a poop, that is, the poop is also foul and toxic. Well I could go on, but a little pondering over ‘pluto’ ‘plutocracy’, the ‘underworld’ (intestines), and it’s associations with death and wealth should serve to show why humankind gets so easily stuffed about these things, and why otherwise intelligent enough people all over the world act so primitively, ie barbarously, because these things are rooted in the mind’s most primitive = earliest, stages of differentiation of itself and sense of security of development.

there is a big difference between the beers you get in Germany and those that are exported to Britain. Next time you cross to Europe try and track some down, you won’t be disappointed.

The Budweiser I found in Britain was more what a German would call “Export” (Lager). For Germans this must still be brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot, but not the stuff for export. The stuff that gets brewed for Germans just has all the chemicals sprayed onto the hops before they get to the brewery …

Celina, do you mean 1907-08 or 2007-08. The US regulations regarding milk production were introduced at least 80 years ago. They are diabolically unfair to US consumers and farmers who don’t live in the right locations, not mention Canadian & NZ dairy farmers.

I think Clinton tried to reform them, but all he could get from Congress was a relocation of some quotas from Illinois counties to Georgia counties (states might not be accurate – my memory is fading).

Then there are the subsidies on Florida sugar that have been their almost since ancient times, in this case the beneficiaries are UnitedStates Sugar Corporation and Florida Crystals. As well as donating several million a year to the big political parties they are also destroying the Everglades; actually they may have finished that job – my Florida mate died.

The US has had the best government money can buy since the latter half of the 19th century. And its getting worse every day :(

This is a bit tangential to shopping per se, but, I just went to the London Transport site, where I found this on the Fare Changes in 2012 pages

“If you do not touch in at the start and touch out at the end of your journeys on Tube, DLR, London Overground and National Rail, you may be charged a maximum Oyster fare of up to £7.80. ”

So to travel on Boris’s bowl of disconnected spaghetti transport system, I have to eat Oysters whilst playing Rugby – has been made known to the foreigners who are planning on going to the London OhLimPricks.

In fairness to the Blonde Peter Pan MopTop, he inherited the spaghetti from Ken, who inherited it from Westminster, who inherited …

Could some tell, Blondie he needs to get someone to rewrite this stuff in simple plain English without local idiosyncrasies like “touch in”, “touch out” and marketing slogans like Oyster tickets.

@greengecko – perhaps it shows where real peoples real priorities lie, in Home & Local Affairs. Maybe they think they can do something about Home & Local Affairs, whilst they feel powerless when it comes to Foreign Affairs.

I’m sure solutions to many of the UK problems lie within its own grasp and inside its own borders. And not as the MSM would have it, in the East or the West Mainlands; they perpetuate these myths in order to protect the Establishment Elite and their vested interests.

I HAVE ATTENDED EVERY COUNCIL (TOWN AND COUNTY) MEETING I WAS ALLOWED TO GO TO FOR THE LAST 2 YEARS (BAR ONE!) AND SOME I SHOULDN’T HAVE. IN FACT I WILL HAVE A BETTER ATTENDANCE RECORD THAN MANY OF THOSE BEING PAID TO ATTEND!
I HAVE CHALLENGED THE MEMBERS ON ALL SORTS OF SUBJECTS FROM PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS, DOUBLE TAXATION, USE OF CONSULTANTS, ECONOMIC PLAN ETC UP TO MOST RECENTLY THE LDF.
I HAVE WRITTEN TO MANY ELECTED MEMBERS AND OFFICERS HIGHLIGHTING AREAS OF CONCERN TO MY LOCALE AND THEIR POLICY DECISIONS AND RAMIFICATIONS.

Just to show I ain’t just a pain in the arse for its own sake I am currently working with several officers on a local development and have found their professionalism and commitment commendable. Slight gripe about slipping timeframes and political interference but that’s local government!

Just completing a local questionnaire which has almost 4000 responses…..all questions were ‘positive’ and it isn’t being used in a contemptuous way, rather a constructive way.

It’s about getting things done and in a much better way rather than just complaining about the status quo: oh and a lack of faith in those supposedly doing it because they aren’t.

SO TO REITERATE, OUR AUTHORITY WILL HAVE BAD BACKS FROM THE BENDING OVER THEY HAVE DONE TO APPEASE TESCO!

Clearly there is a layer of sophistication there I’m missing entirely, yes I am a simple english real ale type, so please let me know where I can try Old Scrotum, though not from TESCO please. Hmm… I’ve just reread that, no double entendre intended!

The demise of the UK manufacturing sector began when Mao & his Mrs were still running China and it could barely, sorry couldn’t, feed itself, let alone make anything for export – except daft revolutionary ideologies to Nepal, Peru etc.

The surge in Made in China manufactures happened in the mid nineties, by then most UK manufacturing was dead in the water and/or sold to foreigners.

Yesterdays Reuters tickered “VW sells more Bentley’s in China than in the UK”. AFAIK Bentleys are still made in Crewe, pity they’re owned by beetleCarCoy.

It was pleased to see Jony Ive got a new year gong. He couldn’t find a job in the UK where he could apply his talents. So went to work for for Apple as VP Industrial Design. If Jony could have got a job here, there might not be any US Apple iGadgets, instead there’d be UK Strawberry qGadgets :sigh:

Sigmund Freud (however he got my number I can’t guess) just rang me up to say he’d looked over this posting, and from the featured photograph concluded it was all about a man’s concern with pairs of jugs! He went on to buttress his point by saying “can’t you see? — the fact that the instinctively desired larger pair had to be rejected by his intellect goes along with everything predicted by my theories of oral rage!”

“Sigmund, you old fool,” I replied, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!”

In Sweden, we have something called “jämförpriser”, comparison prices. Retailers are required by law to display not only the price of the actual container but also the price for a standard unit (usually a kg or a litre). This enables the customer to easily (without the horror of having to perform arcane stuff like maths) compare the prices between different brands and container sizes and spot the best value.

I’m not always a fan of meddlesome government regulations, but this is one such that is actually very useful.

I only shop at Tesco for those few things I cannot get elsewhere. On a recent visit looking for turnips, which had been priced at £1.78 per kilo, they were priced by the piece at £0.78 per turnip, with a minimum weight of 200g. That is quite an increase. I got them at the old price from our farm shop. They also have cabbages at £0.49 each.

There seems to be a local cartel working on tins of chick peas. Both Sainsbury and Tesco have hiked the price from 40p per tin to 78p. This must be due to the local shortage or chick peas or the poor harvest in Hereford and Worcester due to the drought. Happily on a trip to Asda in Bromsgrove I was able to stock up for 40p. Everything else was more expensive however than our local Tesco and Sainsbury.

If the US and EU stopped subsidising agriculture and controlling who, what and where things can be produced, then perhaps food prices would drop. Don’t say what about the small farmers, the bulk of the subsidies go to the corporate agribusiness conglomerates.

Why don’t they do that, because corporate agribusiness conglomerates pump large dollops of cash into the coffers of political party machines.

After 97 posts mostly berating the business founded by Jack Cohen,and run by his sons in law,Leslie Porter and Hyman Kreitman(who resigned in a huff over Lord Mclaurin dropping Greenshield stamps)and then the boy from Liverpool taking the thing multinational,as a contrarian investor,I would say that the market research from the west country is very interesting.Only one savvy shopper noticed the trick,the cash flow is great,the market share obscene,and the shares are a BUY.

@gemz – well yes – if it *was* Budweiser Budvar…..mind you that ain’t what it used to be at least to my taste compared to when it first appeared.

@JW. I assume (hope?) you are being ironic. The beechwood chippings nonsense is – er, dare I say it b*****x. Let’s deconstruct it: first those chippings: they are boiled for 7 hours in bicarbonate of soda. Why? To take away any taste of the chippings. Smoother? You gotta be kiddin’. Next, it has about 30% rice in it. Ever heard of a beer with rice in it? No nor have I – except for Bud.

Budweiser is a triumph of marketing over product quality – a bit like Stella.

Reflectuncooked
I nearly always shop in Aldi and Netto in France. Amazing product variety and value.
But steer clear of the wines: obscure Slovakian gnats piss and weird sweet German reds.
Auchun has the best wines were we are.

Bernard
I’m all for competition, but competion is an evil we should all try to avoid. Competion leads to mental arithmetic and other equally appalling afflictions.
Have you ever considered a career in arms dealing?

Alright you lot, enough already. Now listen up.
For a serious alco comme moi, a clean-tasting beer is vital.
Budweiser is the only beer in the world apart from Michelob brewed over Beechwood chippings.
It does make a difference.
If you want to drink Old Scrotum from the Fattoslob Beardie Brewery, then this is no time for self pity. I’m more of a Milwaukee man myself. It comes from a youth misspent in the US.

Hi there, and I am glad of the troll-less Slog too. Did you see my anti-troll blog? http://www.eintroll.blog.de tee hee. I was thinking of adding one about supermarkets :-)

Great idea about grow your own. The other thing to do is find out what homeopathic remedies work with your family. Once you get the right ones, they can work really well – but getting the right one can be a bit hit and miss. If it stopped my kids crying, it was good enough for me! (Especially the Arnica).

Andrew
Maybe you’re right. It all comes down to why we need ‘regulation’ – pronounced these days as if it might be cancer.
Who other than the State will do it, if the culture is so knackered that lowlife continue to believe cheating is par for the course?
It is a dilemma. But do me a favour and don’t tell me I should be ashamed. What, for holding an opinion? For doing this blog every day, 52/365?

My son was on Tesco’s graduate trainee prog for a while, when his electronic engineering degree didn’t get him a job, and whilst he wasn’t privy to this sort of pricing as management policy he spotted it while shelf-filling and stopped me from doing the rushed sort of shopping others have mentioned up-thread.

What bugs me more about this particular store is its practice of buying land in other names and then opening stores in the face of local opposition (Gerrards Cross and Bristol among others). Maybe others do it too, but Tesco is the one with the notoriety for it.

It’s amazing that towns still fall for the ‘we don’t envisage jeopardising local businesses’ line (not the local authorities, which have their own agendas, but existing traders), when in pure business terms, that would be their best reason for chosing the location. It’s deeply unpleasant – but while we all keep sleep-walking in the doors they’ll continue their ambition to dominate the universe…

I thought the shopping piece would rank high in the number of comments; what stories to swap! It’s like being on the 27b bus. Love it. Has it brought in a record number of new sloggers? Forget the bollocks, let’s just share the best non-aligned shopping deals.

There should be a general legal charge of “deliberately misleading customers”, with regards to pricing. This would then allow consumers to lodge their complaints with trading standards who should rigerously “warn” and then bring cases against miscreants, hopefully leading to hefty fines. The use of excuses such as error or accident should be disregarded. It is up to the retailers to ensure accurate pricing.

In some respects I agree!! but given the “LACK” of education and the quickness of shopping by the harassed mother. Tesco wins every time.
I do not shop in Tesco, they have destroyed a beautiful small town near us, Hailsham east Sussex. But all the so called opposition were queing up at the till!! long before the “SMALL” shops had gone!!

Don’t know where you are, but Hubby was a Town Councillor for a year, until he accepted that the twats already on council were either a) old and dim, b) with ‘issues’ or c) wanting notoriety. (or a mix of the 3!)
In general, the BIG boys have the finance/dedication and persistence to make these things go through…………(like our Gypsies…and NO I am not anti gypsies!)

When you can state that you have attended EVERY council meeting -which you are allowed-, have written to, along with many others , to every councillor going, THEN you can state that they bend over to please the likes of Tesco, if that is against local desire.

Hubby is a ‘spade is a spade’ bloke…… so to quote “for every local petition that says ‘We do not WANT…..’ there should be a ‘We DO WANT a …..’, otherwise the ‘statistics’ are worthless! ”
No fancy education, but says it all really!

I think the “Best Seller” scam dates back to the Romans and probably long before. Often it is know as “Special Price”, i.e., six pee extra.
.
I think here, in Canada, there must be a law against it, since at my local Safeway, everything has an item price, plus in small print, the price per 100 grams or milliliters or whatever.

Seems like one small useful rule change David Cameron could attend to in whatever time he has to spare from doing the PR for BP.

I have a smile on my face, myself and Mrs reflective are coming over to the UK this weekend to do a bit of shopping, we will return will a car full of groceries. Morrison’s is heaven for us, French stores are terrible, Intermarche, Leclerc, Carrefour are all in it up to their necks. Cheating, fiddling rip off merchants. Hyper U/Super U are just a little better, but the best by far is Lidl’s or Aldi. Lidl’s do a Super Samedi, often 25% the regular price….once brought 25 1kg Lasagnes! Reduced from 2.79€ to 1.99€, love a bargain. We’ve still got tons of the stuff in our freezer, everyone’s fed up with eating the damned stuff!

You Brit’s just do not know when you are onto a good thing, you are truly lucky bastards.

Our order of UK stores goes like this,
Morrisons (We spent more in Morrisons in 2011 than we spent in any grocery store in France, which is amazing considering we live in France full time and have done for 10 years!), Sainsburys (A bit more expensive generally, but nice stuff in their stores) , Tesco (we are not very keen, in fact we are taking back some stuff to one of their stores this weekend), Asda, (tends to be for fat gits, we do not like shopping there because its American owned). But all in all, the range of foods/drinks is just amazing.

The only true advantage of French stores is that wine is often on promotion, but the downside, its mainly crappy French wine!

Bloodly hell JW I thought you had an interest in fine wines and here you admit to drinking Budweiser. To be fair your confession was limited to purchase, perhaps you save it for your less discerning guests? A much cheaper option will be to save the bottles and p*ss in them for next Xmas, I’d have thought the taste should be quite similar but I have to confess its many years since I’ve tasted it so I can’t be completely sure. TESCO are the spawn of satan and we have kept them out of our town so far despite all kinds of shenanigans on their part. Our large number of excellent local owner managed meat, cheese, greegrocer and baker businesses would no doubt all go to the wall pretty damn quick if they worm their way in. They create complete instability in the food chain through reduction of diversity and screw farmers/suppliers to the floor. Fair enough they are cheap, but so is all that crap from China which has eliminated alot of our manufacturing base. Lets hear it for quality and intelligent local shopping.

Absolutely agree………Except that my Ma had 2 detached retinas in her 40’s, widowed at 42, is a similar age to you, and with only half of one eye functional, it is irrelevent how good she still is at arithmetic- the small print on this stuff being TOO SMALL. Not sure I like the ‘dog eats dog’ as she is by far better than a SUN reader. Getting ‘taken for a ride’ is why she now lives in an annexe with us…..hope you have the heart to live with ‘loved ones’. It’s not easy, but will be the new ‘ Everyone can own a home’ !

And by the way, Ma is veggie for 20+ years, doesn’t drink coffee or red wine, Bowel cancer surviving….go figure!

In some out of the way places in the US –smallish supermarkets in downscale neighborhoods– there was suspicion of price gouging on food due to the food stamp/benefits card phenomenon (without which there very well might be pockets of actual famine amidst plenty). In these shops you never see hardly anyone pay with cash — they swipe their cards. And the people who have the cards, usually mothers with children in tow, very well might have no idea what they are being charged –many don’t even have the Latin alphabet as their default. So it seemed that during the 2008-09 crunch sometimes you’d see the price of chicken spike through the roof in some of these places. Nearly double overnight sort of thing. This was reversed rather exceedingly quickly when reported to politicians, thankfully. But there remain items which are suspiciously highly priced, such as butter. There is the public policy in the US of having made prices for packs of cigarettes go from $2.50 to $12.00 over the course of a few years, and this is said to be for reasons of promoting health, and I guess, to be a bit cynical, save on medicare in the long run. Could similar things be done with butter, as it said to promote cholesterol? Probably not. Milk prices, which must be controlled, have been allowed to rise slowly, so I imagine the dairy concerns have to try to eke out their margins where possible.

Can’t even get the details of the Tesco deal currently being pushed through here apart from their taking our largest car park over and altering the covenant which used to say it had to be held for free use by the community and included a market once a week.
Our council will have back ache from all the bending over they have done!
The planning gain or 106 money is another joke, that’s to repair a broken CCTV camera which actually monitors the front of their shop area.
From being ambivalent about their proposed development what has gone on has coloured a lot of local opinion about this scheme and it didn’t really need to happen but it does seem par for the Tesco course.

maths here in the uk not math – a particular American abomination and a pet peeve of mine!

I can proudly say I have only once been into a Tesco and that was an emergency when I was trying to get an all night pharmacy to get the swine flu medicines for my daughter. I thought I had died and ended upo in Walmart hell. The people were so fat they filled a complete aisle and many were on electric golfcarts loading up on the fatty crap. Once is enough in any lifetime and to think they are expanding remorselessly offshore. I was disappointed when the PM of India signed the bill allowing these monsters into his country. It will destroy the existing lifeblood of India so the middle class can get frozen pizza.

Agreed, growing your own is the way to go financially….we had 2 fresh cockerels instead of turkey for Christmas too, wretched to kill and prepare, but even my generally vegetarian or ‘free-range/organic’ only , 74 yr old Mother would eat! Know what you’re getting and all that!

Hubby treated me to the book ‘Grow your own Drugs’ by James Wong….£2 from The Book People,(internet) absolute bargain, and now setting me off on growing stuff other than for eating. Yet another way of avoiding the cartels etc by using long standing tried and tested herbs etc for obvious simple ailments/skin care.
£6.10 has ordered me enough seed to supply the whole town with basic(but newly concepted) plants, and once the tree/shrub seeds arrive, (another £6.20), and are going, I’ll need a tree plantation!!
Actually I already do need one, to house the 14 Szechuan pepper trees I’ve got on the go…….so much to grow, so little space! sigh….

I’ve had to stop buying the larger economy sizes of anything when they’re available because with my age and living in a fourth floor walk-up w.o. elevator it is too hard on my knees to carry much at one time. Perhaps some statistician has done work on off-setting medical expenses and over-pricing the large size has become world policy, because it goes on everywhere. Doubt it though.

Of course nobody likes being ripped off. But it is only painful to those who actually find out later. Anything illegal of course, should be stamped out, but I’m all for a bit of free enterprise and always on the look out for bargains. The last thing we want is for everything to be uniform. What happened to competion? This method of marketing is a form of competion and unfortunately there are winners and (sadly) losers. I went to school in the 1940-50’s and we were taught mental arithmetic – so now it is proving useful. If todays shoppers can’t work out what is the best buy – hard cheese! I can! :)
Sorry to be so uncaring – but it’s a big hard world out there where ‘dog eats dog’ and the weak get taken for a ride.

One of my pricing pet hates is when, for example, a box of dishwasher tablets has small print of pence per tablet and the brand next to it has £ per kilo. I can work it out in my head quite quickly (as the box states how many tabs are inside) but many cannot be bothered. They do the same with fresh packaged produce such as tomatoes.

Mine might not have cooked much, but he grew some wonderfully tasty veggies – which meant it was possible to make a meal for a family of four for under a pound (early 2000s).

The point I find annoying about comparisons is often that they have €/litre or €/item or €/kg for similar items from different companies. These days it is more a question of the products I prefer the taste and smell of than their actual cost.

They make it very hard for people to do the math. It’s the same with the “Traffic Light” system, for example: X calories for every 130gms. Why? why not per 100gms, Oh, I know, easier to sell an unhealthy product if you disguise it’s fat, sugar, calorie content by making it hard for people to work out just how much they are eating. Tiny tiny writing hidden around the logo saying “per one quarter of a pot” Who eats one quartet of a snack pot?
Well, judging by the people I see, not many!
Crisps….A “grab bag” Why? a huge increase in fat, salt calories for nearly the same price, then all we hear about is obesity.
Are they taking the mick?

JW, you should try shopping with my 20 year old son, a 3rd yr Uni student at Keele. Not only does he utilise every shop in the area, having a spreadsheet like mind on cost/weight/ml per store, but he also drags at least 5 other students with him for the weekly shop so they share not only the bulk buys, but also the taxi fare home with all the ‘winnings’!! (Cheaper than the bus if >4 peeps)
He then cooks daily for 4, sells extra for 50p per meal (NOT a money grabber, but a realist) and with his breadmaker, supplies the block with fresh bread/pizza etc.

The only thing You might find against him is the fact that he is studying Environment and Sustainability so would give you a run for your money re. climate change and wind turbines etc. Still, I think he’ll make a super ‘wife’!!

As most big shops have been ‘conning’ the mainstream for years, I agree that your latest offering suggests you perhaps don’t shop regularly for much- wines excepted- and perhaps if you had covered the fact that on the same shelf, with similar items, the irritating small print can swap between £/kg and £/ 100g, (l vs ml or whatever) then you might have had a little more support and less flack. Good point made however, now just learn to shopsurf! And get greener fingers…..

I spread it around as much as possible these days. My local tesco has a greengrocer next door that is miles cheaper and a discount retailer selling brand name toiletries etc for miles less.

Makes it easier to get the best of both worlds.

Oh and tesco are c**ts. That labelling scam is rampant (I saw it done with digestives a couple of weeks ago), and John’s complaint is valid because most shoppers never do the math when checking by volume etc. What with them being pre-occupied with Jordans tits and X-Factor.

Here in Australia the supermarkets are beginning to use all the same dirty tricks.
It’s interesting that one of them (there is a duopoly) has a new ex-Tesco CEO.
In response, more and more people are going to farmers’ markets or the equivalent, and smaller local shops (the equivalent of SPARs) called IGAs (Independent Grocers of Australia)
I sense a change.

Who cares about time when only a third of the population are employed.

I live in an urban area so am lucky enough to have a large choice of small shops, two markets, as well as several supermarket chains (including 3 Lidls within walking distance!). I know where to go for the best prices.

It takes time to get to learn but once the initial research is done it is just a case of keeping eyes open for changes, beneficial and otherwise.

There are also quirks of each supermarket. For example Waitrose have more reductions on a Thursday evening (general) and Monday morning (meat) than at other times. Get to know things like this and you can either save a load or eat a few things that would normally only be for special occasions.

But has anyone done a proper comparison to the alternative of shopping at the big supermarkets ?

This means going to the local high street and visiting x number of local shops. You may have to pay a parking fee as well. Then there is the time factor.

I just cannot see that local shopping is going to be that much cheaper than the big supermarkets and if it is cheaper you will loose out on the time factor.

There is no way the population would choose to go back to shopping a la 1970’s style. Supermarkets offer great value and convenience. Yes they have their marketing ploys, but isnt that the same for all shops.

If Leclerc in France were doing this sort of thing 20 years ago, I can tell you nothing has changed. Shopping at Leclerc or – particularly – Carrefour is a nightmare. I only go in if it absolutely can’t be avoided. it’s not that you need to work out prices as you go as much as the fact that the price you see on the shelf is just not the one you pay at the checkout.
You live in East Devon then, S. I used to be on that patch. Ever come across the great CWC?

It seems we have descended from a “nation of shopkeepers” to a nation of shop schleppers. Still stocking up on genuine bargains provides a better roi than losing money in a bank account with current low rates of interest and the current high rate of inflation.

Probably all the supermarkets do this trick-ASDA certainly do. It is always advisable to check the price per kg or litre to find out which is best value. Having said which just because something is better value doesn’t mean it will be the bestseller. BOGOFS are good value provided you don’t mind eating the stuff for days on end-but for those whith big families obviously they are great.

If Curry’s want to offer a one of their TV’s at “Half-Price” they have to charge a higher price for 28 days but I don’t think these regulations apply to “perishable” items. I try and avoid shopping there altogether!

I caught onto this years ago when my local store cleverly replaced 500ml cans of beer with 475ml cans. Exact same in store shelf position but the price remained the same.

A common ploy is to raise prices on many varied products by a few pence each week up to a point where sales start to slow (Supermarkets monitor their sales extremely efficiently) then reduce them, little by little, until sales pick up again thereby finding the optimum sales price. Tesco are not alone in this practice.

My local branch has the highest fuel costs around for petrol – they boast they are the cheapest within 3 miles – but then again, having destroyed the competition, they are the ONLY filling station for 3 miles – and the price is at the discretion of the store manager. A slow week in store means a 1p per litre rise. The price is 5p a litre higher than the nearby Asda yet people still fill up there! Go figure!

What do you set foot in the place for? The Guardian did an in depth examination of its complex tax and overseas arrangements and – oh dear – it was all a big mistake. Huge apology. Go figure. I wouldn’t be seen dead in one and one suddenly popped up at the top of our road.

And it’s about time Tesco were stopped from flagging up ridiculous ‘offers’ on overpriced ‘fresh’ produce too. A pack of English strawberries in July will flaunt a huge and colourful HALF PRICE sticker. So £6.00 – the price of the summer berries some weeks earlier – has been slashed to £2.99. Except the fruit in that packaging has never been on sale at the higher price. As the strawberry season progresses, market prices fall. They always have done and it’s zip all to do with the Evil Empire’s buying power or generosity. But it does illustrate the way Tesco thinks about and treats its customers. Every Little Trick helps.

I once went through a checkout with a pint of milk; a ready meal; some fruit and a bottle of wine.
The checkout girl looked up at me and said knowingly, “I can tell you’re single.”
“How’s that?” I asked.
She replied, “‘Cos you’re a very ugly-looking b@st@rd.”
(TaDa!. Exit stage left)

I noticed exactly this practice in an ASDA store in Decmeber. The ‘Best Seller, (Pepsi Max), pack was 10p dearer per can than an alternative 8 pack of Pepsi Max. I mentioned it to my wife who said she was well aware of this scam. In fact, she said it in a tone of voice which also said – “you need to do the shopping more often!”

I notice this most in ASDA cheese, where the big pack is cheaper than the small, but the small is on offer.
Offer isnt marked £/kg and Weights and Prices are always such that its a tricky sum to work out which is cheapest, it varies week to week whether the big pack is cheaper than two small ones on offer.

C’mon John
You were in the biz a whole lifetime. Caveat Emptor and all that. The info is there for you to work out. And you DID work it out. It even had the price per litre to help you. Please don’t patronize the rest of the shopping community. Or are you admitting you rarely do the shopping? You saw the weasel. Most people would. And a weasel like “Best Seller” should always ring massive alarm bells because it means b**ger all!
C’mon, admit you’re a Tescophobe.
Doubt it would ever happen in that good ol’ mutual they call Waitrose?
Let’s get realistically rational here.

Tesco are a cancer on society and a classic example of greed over people syndrome.
They care not for the rules just the profit.
They are pretty much unstoppable now they have been allowed to get too strong.
I will not shop there unless I can’t do without whatever it is I need.

What is also a little unerving is just how much some people seem to think they need to buy when they shop and often the content of the trolley seems to get there without apparently even a thought of cost

Tesco’s are one of the most egregious examples of rampant corporatism in the UK. Given your pronouncements At The End Of The Day yesterday, I’m surprised that you continue to support and enrich them with your custom.

The ethos of the supermarkets seems to be exploit the supplier exploit the staff and exploit the customer.

If you have time boycott them all and let the corporations rot or they will eliminate all competition in groceries and you will end up having no choice at all.

Sainsbury’s a former employer of mine use a similar practice I picked them up on it and had a similarly shifty response from management when I expressed my opinion re them duping unwary customers into paying more for less. The manager was a chap I used to work with 25yrs ago.
Packs of three juices actually worked out more expensive than buying individually although the shelving position (eye hight) and promotional flash implied the 3pack was a “bargain”.

The supermarket monopoly cartel also control the fuel supplies and lo and behold all the petrol stations where I live have the same or similar pricing often 5p a litre more expensive than outside the area. Nearly all the independent suppliers having been sent bust due to supermarkets subsidising cheap fuel initially to eliminate the competition. The market is rigged and we are being robbed with at least the tacit approval of the political parasites who preen themselves pontificate and do very little thats useful or in our interest all of course at our expense in every sense.

We shop in Sainsburys and Morrisons and it’s the same there too. we always check the litre or kg price. And own brand isn’t always cheaper either. We’ll often check prices on Sainsbury’s website before we shop, go to Morrisons first (no prices on the web) and if anything is more expensive, we then go on to Sainsbury’s to buy. And as S is on the way home from Morrisons we don’t end up spending more on petrol chasing a few pence off.

Can get caught out though. Found what we thought was an offer on Hellmanns Mayo and then Sainsbury’s had it even lower. When we do find an offer on items we usually buy then we do stock up. A bit of a hedge against food inflation too. Just watching the way bread and butter have fluctuated in price over the last couple of years has been fascinating with increases of more than 25%.

And what annoys me even more is the number of pack sizes that weigh less for the ‘old’ price. Smaller tins and lighter packets gives them more profit. It is a constant battle to get the best value for money.

As to the pricing, all supermarkets are like this to an extent. The real scandal is the Best Seller sticker. Again Tesco are not unique with this kind of bollocks.

I am amazed at how it seems normal for shoppers to blindly buy what they normally buy with hardly a thought for alternative sizes / brands or even a thought about what store they have ended up in.

When I mention these matters to friends and family the stock answer is that they are too busy to keep tabs on things. My response is that by spending an extra ten minutes doing the weekly shop they could easily save an hours pay, or two hours for the young ones near minimum wage. Why are they so blindly desperate to throw their hard earned money at the checkout?

If theres no demand for a Tesco, then the Tesco will go under.
The people trying to block new things, usualy own the old things.

A new tesco was built near me, much to the chargrin of the locals, who, as usual, argued no one wanted a Tesco.
I’ve never seen the carpark less than half full, and I go at weird times.
The local shops that tried to have it blocked have all closed, well, they would, they were at least 40% more expensive, hardly ever open, and well, you get the rest I’m sure

Not that I’m a fan of Tesco, but as long as you have a powerful controlling local government, you’ll be dominated by multinationals who can hit back, and hit back hard.

One would have thought that such a prominent concern as Tesco would be at great pains to demonstrate the honesty and straightforwardness of its pricing and other practices.

Still, I expect they have picked up a few bad habits in their dealings with national politicians, civil servants and local planners.

The really sad thing is that “progressive” education has by now created several generations who cannot manage simple arithmetic. No doubt Teso’s marketing people are aware of that. How very sad that their management should let them take advantage of it.
Since they ditched Cancer Research for “Gay Pride”, it is obvious that their moral compass is as dodgy as Westminster/Whitehall/Brussels.

I used to work for Tescos years ago. One of my worst memories was having to sit on the floor peeling off the sticky price labels so that a new, higher price label could be put on. I was told later that its illegal to do that to food stock. Anyway, thats my memory, with a background of Roxy Music blaring out in the background.